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Downs Syndrome Football

The essence of the DS Active is to provide children and young people with Down's Syndrome the same benefits of being on a team as their able-bodied peers.

Through football, this project aims to create a multi-tier learning environment that will improve the participants' overall physical, social and emotional health.

The project has been running weekly on Monday night's for an hour and a half for children and young people with DS aged 5 to 25.

There have been between 20 and 30 participants at each session, which focus on developing the core fundamentals of football.

While participants are learning physical skills, they are simultaneously increasing their own social and emotional abilities.

For many of the Tiger Cubs, this was one of the few times (other than school) where they were interacting with adults other than their parents, and interacting with other people with DS.

Approximately 85 per-cent of people with DS attend mainstream school. Having the ability to train and play at a similar level increases their ability to reap all of the potential benefits.

The Down's Syndrome Association (DSA) has been a key partner in making this project work. The DSA is the only organisation in the UK solely dedicated to living successfully with Down's Syndrome (DS) with an aim of helping people with DS live full and rewarding lives.

QPR in the Community Trust have received a major funding boost with the news that ‘Global Relief Initiative’ – a registered charity founded by Trustee Amit Bhatia – is committed to supporting, for a three-year period, the R’s Tiger Cubs, a fully inclusive Football Club for children with Downs Syndrome (DS).

The financial support given by Bhatia – which was agreed prior to the end of the 2010/11 campaign – is set to benefit the Club by eight times than its current outreach. Trust CEO Andy Evans also took time to praise the gift from Bhatia's charity, adding: "The beauty of working with the Tiger Cubs in partnership with Global Relief Initiative is that QPR in the Community Trust are able to provide much needed support to families and individuals within the QPR community, which is absolutely fantastic.

"Equally the Tiger Cubs are all so passionate about supporting QPR and are as excited about representing a Premier League team next season.

"A modern day Premier League Club does far more than that, they now have very dedicated Community Trust staff running an array of community-focused projects that are having an enormous impact in this case for children and families living with Downs Syndrome."

"This is just the beginning of a very exciting partnership and we are delighted to be supported by Global Relief Initiative."

The Tiger Cubs are also supported by Bradley Orr, who is the patron of the club “ It’s a privilege to be involved with the tiger cubs, having been to a couple of sessions already it is clear how much the kids enjoy their football and the positive impact the project is having on their lives”